Latin America

Latin America refers to those portions of South,
Central, and North America colonized by Spain and Portugal, primarily
during the 16th century. Between 1813 and 1822 most of these areas
followed the example of the English
colonists in North America who broke away from the mother country to
form the United States of America
in 1776. The United States responded to the revolution in Latin America
with the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which stated that any further
European attempts at colonization or interference with the new states
in the Western Hemisphere would be met by U.S.
intervention.

The few areas of Latin America that remained under
Spanish control (primarily Cuba and Puerto Rico) were taken from Spain
by the United States following the Spanish-American War of 1898. Puerto
Rico became an unincorporated American territory under the control of Congress, while Cuba became an independent
nation. Residents of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, and Puerto Ricans such as Pedro del Valle made their
contribution to Allied
victory in the Second World War.

However, none of the nations of Latin America achieved
the stability or prosperity of "The Colossus of the North". A series of
American interventions, beginning with the "filibusters" (private
adventurers from the southern American states prior to the Civil War of
1861-1865), and continuing with the "Banana Wars" of the 1920s, created
wariness in the Latin American nations of their powerful northern
neighbor. Roosevelt's promulgation of a "Good Neighbor Policy" from
1933 on enjoyed some success at relaxing these tensions, and after war
broke out in Europe the United States provided military aid to many
countries of Latin America.

The United States feared that Latin American weakness
would invite the Axis to
base espionage and sabotage
operations in South America, to find safe havens for U-boats in ports of Axis-leaning Latin American
countries, or even prepare the way for an invasion of the Western
Hemisphere across the Atlantic Narrows between Brazil and Africa. There
was also fear that the Axis might interfere with supplies of raw
materials from South America, such as tin
and tungsten from Bolivia, copper from Chile, oil from Venezuela, or manganese and bauxite
from throughout South
American and the Caribbean. On 1 July 1940, 550 Infantry Airborne
Battalion was activated in Panama, where is was joined a few days later
by 510 Parachute Battalion from Fort Benning. The two battalions had orders to be prepared to rapidly deploy to any Central American capital city in the event that pro-Axis elements attempted a coup d'etat.

Nine Latin American nations joined the U.S. declaration
of war against Japan following the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and
another three broke diplomatic relations with the Axis. Sumner Welles,
the American undersecretary of state who prided himself on his
knowledge of Latin America, led a U.S. delegation to a conference of
American states in Brazil in January 1942 where he sought a joint
declaration by all the American republics severing relations with the
Axis. Chile and Argentina were unwilling to go so far, in part because
they feared the U.S. Navy could not protect their long coastlines and
in part because of a significant population of immigrants from Axis
nations. Rather than risk American disunity, Welles was forced to
settle for a weak resolution recommending severing relations with the
Axis as circumstances permitted.

Concern over the security of the long western coastline
of South America led the United States to organize Southeast
Pacific Force even before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because this
area was a long ways from the Japanese, the only real concern was with
commerce raiders, and Southeast Pacific Force never consisted of more
than a handful of old cruisers
and destroyers. Southeast
Pacific Force was based at the Panama
Canal Zone, itself an area of paramount strategic importance.

Brazil received the lion's share of aid to Latin
America, some 75%, because of its proximity to Africa and as a
counterweight to Argentina. Brazil and Mexico
both supplied combat units to Europe, but the only Latin American unit
to see combat in the Pacific was Mexico's 201 Fighter Squadron (the
"Aztec Eagles"). Several airfields
were built in Brazil for patrolling the Atlantic that also formed part
of an air bridge for aircraft
headed to the Far East.

The Bolivian government was overthrown in late 1943 by
a Fascist-leaning coup. The United States tried unsuccessfully to bring
down the new government through diplomatic and economic pressure, but
Bolivia and its vital tin remained nominally in the Allied camp for the
rest of the war. Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina did
not break diplomatic relations with the Axis until late 1942 or 1943,
and all five nations declared war in 1945 in order to have a seat at
the victor's table. Peru was something of an anomaly, breaking
diplomatic relations in 1942, permitting the basing of U.S. forces, and
patrolling off Panama but not
formally declaring a "state of belligerency" until 1945.

U.S. diplomatic pressure on the more pro-Axis nations
in Latin America was sometimes clumsy and overbearing. The British were particularly
unhappy with the harsh U.S. attitude towards Argentina, which supplied
half of Britain's meat imports but was led by a government dominated by
the pro-Axis Juan Peron. The American attitude towards Argentina
softened somewhat after Hull resigned as U.S. Secretary of State in
December 1944.

Latin America received about 1% of total Lend-Lease aid, of which more than 70% went to Brazil to support antisubmarine operations in the Atlantic Narrows and an air bridge to Africa.
Although the Latin American military contribution enabled by Lend-Lease
should not be lightly dismissed, the greater significance of Lend-Lease
was in encouraging economic and political cooperation.

Latin America was a long ways from the Axis and the
chief concern of the Allies throughout the war was with preventing any
distractions in the area that would divert resources from the struggles
in Europe and Asia or would lead to postwar instability. The Allies
were largely successful at achieving the first goal, but U.S. military
aid aimed at achieving the second goal set a precedent for support of
Latin American dictators that would prove unfortunate in the postwar
world.